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104
.WT67

CLARENCE WINTHROP BOWEN

Press of

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York

As a full history of Woodstock has been in prepara-
tion for several years and will, it is hoped, be published
in the course of another year, this brief sketch is issued
as it was read at the Bi-Centennial Anniversary of
the town.

WOODSTOCK

An Historical sketch

CLARENCE WINTHROP BOWEN, Ph.D.

READ AT ROSELAND PARK, WOODSTOCK, CONNECTICUT, AT THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE TOWN, ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 18S6

NEW YORK & LONDON

P. PUTNAM'S SONS

'^\% fiitidurboclur |3rjss
1886

CLARENCE WINTHROP BOWEN
1886

Press of

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York

CONTENTS.

I. Introduction 7

11. The Settlement of Massachusetts Bay

and of roxbury 8

III. The Nipmuck Country and the Visit of

John Eliot to the Indians at Wabba-
quasset, or woodstock . . . .12

IV. The Settlement of New Roxbury, or

Woodstock 20

V. The Change of the Name of New Rox-
bury TO Woodstock .... 28
VI. The Growth of the New Township —

1690-1731 32

VII. Ecclesiastical Affairs .... 36
VIII. The Transfer of Woodstock from Mas-
sachusetts TO Connecticut ... 43
IX. Military Record . . : . .46

X. Educational Matters . . . -53
XI. Distinguished Citizens . . . -55
XII. Characteristics of Woodstock . . 58

XIII. Conclusion 61

Index 63

The history of the town of Woodstock is associated
with the beginnings of history in New England. The
ideas of the first settlers of Woodstock were the ideas
of the first settlers of the Colony of Plymouth and the
Province of Massachusetts Bay. The planting of these
colonies was one of the fruits of the Reformation. The
antagonism between the Established Church of England
and the Non-Conformists led to the settlement of New
England. The Puritans of Massachusetts, at first Non-
Conformists, became Separatists like the Pilgrims of
Plymouth. Pilgrims and Puritans alike accepted per-
secution and surrendered the comforts of home to ob-
tain religious liberty. They found it in New England ;
and here, more quickly than in the mother country,
they developed also that civil liberty which is now the
birthright of every Anglo-Saxon.

II.

The settlement of Woodstock is intimately connected
with the first organized settlement on Massachusetts
Bay ; and how our mother town of Roxbury was first
established is best told in the words of Thomas Dudley
in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln under date of
Boston, March 12, 1630-1 :

"About the year 1627 some friends, being together
in Lincolnshire, fell into discourse about New England
and the planting of the gospel there. In 1628 we
procured a patent from his Majesty for our planting
between the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River
on the South and the River of Merrimack on the
North and three miles on either side of those rivers
and bay . . . and the same year we sent Mr. John
Endicott and some with him to begin a plantation. In
1629 we sent divers ships over with about three hundred
people. Mr. Winthrop, of Suffolk (who was well
known in his own country and well approved here for
his piety, liberality, wisdom, and gravity), coming in to
us we came to such resolution that in April, 1630, we
set sail from Old England. . . . We were forced to
change counsel, and, for our present shelter, to plant
dispersedly."

Settlements were accordingly made at Salem,
Charlestown, Boston, Medford, Watertown, and in
several other localities. The sixth settlement was
made, to quote further from the same letter to the
Countess of Lincoln, by " others of us two miles from
Boston, in a place we named Rocksbury." '

The date of settlement was September 28, 1630, and
just three weeks later the first General Court that ever
sat in America was held in Boston. The same year
the first church in Boston was organized.^ Roxbury,
like the other settlements of Massachusetts Bay, was
a little republic in itself. The people chose the select-
men and governed themselves ; and as early as 1634,
like the seven other organized towns, they sent three
deputies to Boston to attend the first representative
Assembly at which important business was transacted.
The government of Roxbury, like the other planta-
tions, was founded on a theocratic basis. Church and
state were inseparable. No one could be admitted as
a citizen unless he was a member of the church.
Many of the first settlers came from Nazing, a small
village in England, about twenty miles from London,
on the river Lee. Morris, Ruggles, Payson, and Pea-
cock, names read in the earliest records of Woodstock,
were old family names in Nazing. Other first inhabi-
tants of Roxbury came from Wales and the west of
England, or London and its vicinity. Among the

1 Also spelt Roxbeny, Roxborough, Rocksborough. '^ July 30, 1630.

founders were John Johnson, Richard Bugbee, and
John Leavens, whose family names are well known as
among the first settlers of Woodstock. All were men
of property ' ; none were " of the poorer sort." In
1 63 1 the Rev. John Eliot, a native of the village of Naz-
ing, arrived with a company of Nazing pilgrims. Eliot,
though earnestly solicited to become pastor of the
church in Boston,^ accepted the charge of the church in
Roxbury, which was organized in 1632,3 and was the
sixth church, in order of time, established in New Eng-
land. Another name equally prominent in the earliest
years of the history of Roxbury was that of William
Pynchon, afterwards known as the founder of Spring-
field in Massachusetts. Only Boston excels Roxbury
in the number of its citizens who have made illustrious
the early history of the Massachusetts colony."* Among
the early settlers of Roxbury who themselves became,
or whose descendants became, the early settlers of
Woodstock, were the Bartholomews, Bowens, Bugbees,
Chandlers, Childs, Corbins, Crafts, Griggses, Gareys,
Holmeses, Johnsons, Lyons, Levinses, Mays, Morrises,
Paysons, Peacocks, Peakes, Perrins, Scarboroughs,
and Williamses.5

' Young's " Chronicles of Massachusetts," p. 396.

'Winthrop's "Journal," by Savage, vol. i., p. in.

*" Ordained over the First Church, Nov. 5, 1632." — Eliot's tomb in Roxbury.

* " Memorial History of Boston," vol, i., p. 403.

^ Though the Williamses did not settle permanently in Woodstock till some
years after the first settlement, the family was most prominent in Roxbury, and
one of its representatives visited the grant ofTicially in 1686.

1 1

In 1643 the towns within the jurisdiction of Massachu-
setts had grown to thirty, and Roxbury did more than
her share towards the organization of the new towns.
In fact, Roxbury has been called the mother of towns,
no less than fifteen communities having been founded
by her citizens/ Among the most important of these
settlements was the town of Woodstock, whose Bi-
centennial we this day celebrate.

'Drake's " Town of Roxbury " and " Menaorial History of Boston," vol. i.,
pp. 401-422.

III.

A glance at the country about us previous to the
settlement of the town, in 1686, shows us a land
sparsely inhabited by small bands of peaceful Indians,
without an independent chief of their own, but who
paid tribute to the Sachem of the Mohegans, the war-
riors who had revolted from the Pequots. Wood-
stock was a portion of the Nipmuck' country, so-called
because it contained fresh ponds or lakes in contrast to
other sections that bordered upon the sea or along run-
ning rivers. Wabbaquasset, or the mat-producing
place, was the name of the principal Indian village, and
that name still exists in the corrupted form of Ouasset
to designate a section of the town. Indians from the
Nipmuck^ country took corn to Boston in 1630, soon
after the arrival of the " Bay Colony" ; and in 16333
John Oldman and his three Dorchester companions
passed through this same section on their way to learn
something of the Connecticut River country ; and they

' De Forest's "Indians of Connecticut," and Palfrey's "History of New
England," and Miss Ellen D. Larned's " History of Windham County."

" Also " called the Wabbaquassett and Whetstone country ; and sometimes the
Mohegan conquered country, as Uncas had conquered and added it to his
sachemdom." Trumbull's " History of Connecticut," vol. i., 31.

' September.

may have rested on yonder " Plaine Hill," for history
states that they " lodged at Indians towns all the way." '
The old " Connecticut Path " over which that distin-
guished band^ of colonists went in 1635 and 1636 to
settle the towns of Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hart-
ford, passed through the heart of what is now Wood-
stock.3 This path so famous in the early days of New
England history, came out of Thompson Woods, a little
north of Woodstock Lake, and proceeding across the
Senexet meadow, ran w^est/^ear Plaine Hill, Marcy's
Hill, and a little south of the base of Coatney Hill.
For more than fifty years before the settlement of the
town, this historic path near Woodstock Hill was the
outlet for the surplus population of Massachusetts Bay

' Winthrop's "Journal," by Savage, vol. i.. 132. Palfrey's " Hist, of New
England," vol. i., 369. The same year (Nov. 1633), "Samuel Hall and two
other persons travelled westward into the country as far as this [Connecticut]
river." Holmes' " Annals," vol. i., 220.

'^ Winthrop's "Journal," vol. i., 171.

'Possibly some of the Dorchester emigrants, including Henry Wolcott, Wil-
liam Phelps, and others, may have passed a little south of this line. Dr. Mc-
Clure's MSS., in the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society : " In a
conversation with the late aged and respectable Capt. Sabin of Pomfret, Ct.,
he related to me the following discovery, viz. : About forty years ago he felled
a large and ancient yoke about the north line of Pomfret adjoining Woodstock.
On cutting within some inches of the heart of the tree it was seen to have been
cut and chipped with some short tool like an axe. Rightly judging that at the
time when it must have been done the Indians so far inland were destitute and
ignorant of the use of iron tools, he counted the number of the annual circular
rings from the said marks to the bark of the tree, and found that there were as
many rings as the years which had intervened from the migration of the Dor-
chester party to that time. Hence ' the probability that they had journeyed
along the north border of Pomfret, and as they traveled by a compass, the con-
jecture is corroborated by that course being nearly in a direct line from Boston
to the place of their settlement on the Connecticut River.' " — Stiles' " History of
Ancient Windsor," p. 26.

and the line of communication between Massachusetts
and the Connecticut and New Haven colonies. But
the most noteworthy feature in the description of the
Indians of the Nipmuck country is that as early as
1670 they were formed into Praying Villages. Evi-
dently the instructions of Gov. Cradock in his letter of
March, 1629, to John Endicott had not been forgotten.
In that letter he said : " Be not unmindful of the main
end of our plantation by endeavoring to bring the In-
dians to the knowledge of the gospel." In the heart
of one man at least that idea was paramount. John
Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, was not content to
be simply the pastor of the church of Roxbury for
nearly sixty years. Amid his countless other labors he
preached the gospel to the Indians of the Nipmuck
country. The first Indian church in America had been
established by him at Natick in i65i ; and, in 1674, he
visited the Indian villages in the wild territory about
these very hills. As he found it, to quote his own
words,' " absolutely necessary to carry on civility with
religion," he was accompanied by Major Daniel Goo-
kin, who had been appointed, in i656, magistrate of
all the Indian towns. Maanexit was first visited on
the Mohegan or Quinebaug River, near what is now
New Boston, where Eliot preached to the natives,
using as his text the seventh verse of the twenty-
fourth Psalm : " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and

' "Memorial Hist, of Boston," vol. i., 263.

be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; and the king of
glory shall come in."

Quinnatisset, on what is now Thompson Hill, was the
name of another Praying Town. But a quotation'
from the homely narrative of Major Gookin is the best
description of Eliot's memorable visit to Woodstock :

" We went not to it [Quinnatisset], being straitened
for time, but we spake with some of the principal
people at Wabquissit.^ . . . Wabquissit . . .
lieth about nine or ten miles from Maanexit, upon the
west side, six miles of Mohegan River, and is distant
from Boston west and by south, about seventy-two
miles. It lieth about four miles within the Massachu-
setts south line. It hath about thirty families, and one
hundred and fifty souls. It is situated in a very rich
soil, manifested by the goodly crop of Indian corn then
newly ingathered, not less than forty bushels upon an
acre. We came thither late in the evening upon the
1 5th of September, and took up our quarters at the
sagamore's wiofwam, who was not at home : but his
squaw courteously admitted us, and provided liberally,
in their way, for the Indians that accompanied us.
This sagamore inclines to religion, and keeps the
meeting on sabbath days at his house, which is
spacious, about sixty feet in length and twenty feet in
width. The teacher of this place is named Sampson ;
an active and ingenious person. He speaks good

' " Historical Collections of the Indians in New England. By Daniel Goo-
kin, Gentleman, Printed from the original manuscript, 1792." See "Collec-
tions Mass. Hist. Soc," vol. i., First Series, pp. 190-192.

' Wabbaquasset, or Woodstock.

English and reads well. He is brother unto Joseph,
before named, teacher at Chabanakougkomun "...
being both hopeful, pious, and active men ; especially
the younger before-named Sampson, teacher at Wab-
quissit, who was, a few years since, a dissolute person,
and I have been forced to be severe in punishing him
for his misdemeanors formerly. But now he is,
through grace, changed and become sober and pious ;
and he is now very thankful to me for the discipline
formerly exercised towards him. And besides his
flagitious life heretofore, he lived very uncomfortably
with his wife ; but now they live very well together,
I confess this story is a digression. But because it
tendeth to magnify grace, and that to a prodigal, and
to declare how God remembers his covenant unto the
children of such as are faithful and zealous for him in
their time and generation, I have mentioned it.

" We being at Wabquissit, at the sagamore's wig-
wam, divers of the principal people that were at home
came to us, with whom we spent a good part of the
night in prayer, singing psalms, and exhortations.
There was a person among them, who, sitting mute a
great space, at last spake to this effect : That he was
agent for Unkas, Sachem of Mohegan, who challenged
right to, and dominion over, this people of Wabquissit.
And said he, Unkas is not well pleased that the Eng-
lish should pass over Mohegan River to call his Indians
to pray to God. Upon which speech Mr. Eliot first
answered, that it was his work to call upon all men
everywhere, as he had opportunity, especially the
Indians, to repent and embrace the gospel ; but he did

' Dudley.

not meddle with civil right or jurisdiction. When he
had done speaking, then I declared to him, and desired
him to inform Unkas what I said, that Wabquissit was
within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and that the
government of that people did belong to them ; and
that they do look upon themselves concerned to pro-
mote the good of all people within their limits,
especially if they embraced Christianity. Yet it was
not hereby intended to abridge the Indian sachems of
their just and ancient right over the Indians, in respect
of paying tribute or any other dues. But the main
design of the English was to bring them to the good
knowledge of God in Christ Jesus ; and to suppress
among them those sins of drunkenness, idolatry, powow-
ing or witchcraft, whoredom, murder, and like sins. As
for the English, they had taken no tribute from them,
nor taxed them with any thing of the kind.

" Upon the i6th day of September' being at Wab-
quissit, as soon as the people were come together, Mr.
Eliot first prayed, and then preached to them, in their
own language, out of Mat. vi., 33 : First seek the king-
dom of heaven and the righteousness thereof, and all these
things shall be added unto you. Their teacher, Sampson,
first reading and setting the cxix. Ps., ist part, which
was sung. The exercise was concluded with prayer.

" Then I began a Court among the Indians, and first
I approved their teacher, Sampson, and their constable,
Black James,^ giving each of them a charge to be dili-

1 1674.

^ Black James was a distinguished Indian. He met Eliot again in Cambridge
in June of 1681, where a meeting of the claimants of the Nipmuck country was
held. The village and much of the land of the town of Dudley was known years
after the settlement of Woodstock as "The Land of Black James and Com-
pany."— Ammidown's " Historical Collections," vol. i., 406, 461.

gent and faithful in their places. Also I exhorted the
people to yield obedience to the gospel of Christ and
to those set in order there. Then published a warrant
or order, that I had prepared, empowering the con-
stable to suppress drunkenness, Sabbath breaking,
especially povvowing and idolatry. And, after warning
given, to apprehend all delinquents and bring them
before authority to answer for their misdoings ; the
smaller faults to bring before Watasacompamun, ruler
of the Nipmuck country ; for idolatry and powowing
to bring them before me : So we took leave of this
people of Wabquissit, and about eleven o'clock re-
turned back to Maanexit and Chabanakougkomun,
where we lodged this ni^ht."

History fails to locate the spot where John Eliot's
sermon to the Indians of Woodstock was delivered,
but tradition points to " Pulpit Rock," so-called, under
the aged chestnut trees of the McClellan farm near
the - Old Hall " ' road.

But Eliot's good work in the Nipmuck country was
destroyed when King Philip's war broke out in 1676.
In August of that year a company of Providence men
journeyed as far as Wabbaquasset, thinking that
possibly King Philip himself had escaped thither.''
They found an Indian fort a mile or two west of
Woodstock Hill, but no Indians. A party from Nor-
wich in June of the following year also found deserted
Wabbaquasset and the other Praying Villages. Deso-

' Named after " Wabbaquasset Hall," built in the spring or summer of 1686.
' Palfrey's " History of New England," vol. iii., 159.

lation and devastation followed the disappearance of
the Red Man. The Nipmuck country became more a
wilderness than ever, forsaken of its aboriginal inhabi-
tants whose barbaric tenure could not stand against a
superior civilization.

" Forgotten race, farewell ! Your haunts we tread,
Our mighty rivers speak your words of yore.
Our mountains wear them on their misty head,
Our sounding cataracts hurl them to the shore ;
But on the lake your flashing oar is still,
Hush'd is your hunter's cry on dale and hill,
Your arrow stays the eagle's flight no more,
And ye, like troubled shadows, sink to rest
In unremember'd tombs, unpitied and unbless'd." '

' Mrs. L. H. Sigourney's " Pocahontas."

IV.

The time had now arrived for the white man to make
a settlement at Wabbaquasset. In May, of 1681, the
General Court of Massachusetts Bay had given to
William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley the care of the
Nipmuck country, with power to ascertain the titles be-
longing to the Indians and others, and a meeting of
the claimants was held the following month at Cam-
bridge, at which John Eliot rendered much assistance
as interpreter. Dudley and Stoughton purchased all
the claims, and the following year,' the whole
Nipmuck country became the property of Massa-
chusetts Bay. Jurisdiction over the country had al-
ready been claimed, under the terms of the Massa-
chusetts charter. Many of the inhabitants of the town
of Roxbury now felt that they could improve their
condition and increase their usefulness by forming a
settlement in some desirable portion of the new coun-
try. Undoubtedly their pastor, John Eliot, had told
them of the beauty and fertility of the country about
the Praying Villages of Maanexit, Ouinnatisset, and

' Feb. 10, 16S2.
20

Wabbaqiiasset.' Town meetings to arrange for a new
settlement, were held in Roxbury in October of 1683.^
A petition was signed, by a number of representative
citizens of tlie town, asking that the General Court
might grant to them a tract seven miles square about
Ouinnatisset, in the Nipmuck country. All save six
of the thirty-six who signed this petition, afterwards
became settlers of the new town, and of the five select-
men of Roxbury who presented the petition to the Gen-
eral Court, three ^ represented families prominent in the
early history of Woodstock. The General Court at once
granted ^ the petition provided the grant should not fall
within a section to be reserved for Messrs Stoughton
and Dudley, and Major Thompson, and provided also
that thirty families should be settled on the plantation
within three years from the following June, " and main-
teyne amongst them an able, orthodox, godly min-
ister." ^ In 1684 Roxbury accepted the terms of the
General Court, and sent Samuel and John Ruggles,
John Curtis, and Edward Morris, as a committe of four,
to " view the wilderness and find a convenient place."

' Ellis' " History of Roxbury Town " : " When the people of Roxbury came
to take up lands, they selected their locations amongst the praying Indians or
where Indians had been converted to Christianity. . . . This certainly is
a sure indication of the steady adherence of his [John Eliot's] fellow-towns-
men and their belief in the actual benefits of his missionary labors."

- Oct. 6, 10, and 17.

^ Joseph Griggs, John Ruggles, and Edward Morris.

* Dec. 5, 1683.

^ " Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New
England," vol. v., 426.

As Quinnatisset had been in part already granted, the
committee reported' a territory " commodiose " for
settlement at " Seneksuk and Wapagusset and the
lands ajasiant." A committee was therefore appointed
to draw up an agreement for the "goers," as they were
called, to sign. In i685,'' in answer to the petition of
Edward Morris, deputy in behalf of the town of Rox-
bury, the General Court extended the limit of the time
of settlement from June lo, 1687, to Jan. 31, 1688, and
granted freedom from rates up to that tinie.^ At town
meetings held in Roxbury, during the same year, it
was arranged that one half of the grant should belong
to the new settlers and one hundred pounds in money
be given to them in instalments of twenty pounds a
year, and the other half of the grant should belong to
"the stayers" in consideration of the aid given " the
goers." The southern half of the grant was the por-
tion subsequently occupied by " the goers. ' Actual
possession, however, was not taken until April of the
following year. On the second page of the cover of
the old and musty first volume of records of the pro-
prietors of New Roxbury, afterwards called Woodstock,
are these words :

"April 5, 1686.

" These are the thirteen who were sent out to spy
out Woodstock as planters and to take actual poses-

' Oct. 27, 1684. '' Jan. 28th.

' " Record.s of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New
England," vol. v., 46S.

sion : Jonathan Smithers, John Frissell, Nathaniel
Garey, John Marcy, Benjamin Griggs, John Lord,
Benjamin Sabin, Henry Bowen, Matthew Davis,
Thomas Bacon, Peter Aspinwall, George Griggs, and
Ebenezer Morris."

These thirteen planters, or the " Old Thirteen " as
they have always been called, were visited in May or
June ' by a committee who had been appointed to
ascertain the bounds of the grant. The last meeting
of the " goers to settle " was held in Roxbury, July 2 1 st ;
their first meeting in New Roxbury was held August
25th. A committee of seven, consisting of Joseph Griggs,
Edward Morris, Henry Bowen, Sr., John Chandler,
Sr., Samuel Craft, Samuel Scarborough, and Jona-
than Smithers, having been appointed to make need-
ful arrangements preliminary to the drawing of home
lots, that drawing took place on the twenty-eighth of
August, or, by the new style of reckoning time, exactly
two hundred years ago to-day.

Say the old records : " After solemn prayer to God,
who is the Disposer of all things, they drew lots ac-
cording to the agreement, every man being satisfied
and contented with God's disposing." Would that the
words of that prayer and the picture of that scene
could to-day be reproduced ! Surely the spirit of the
Puritans of 1630 was the spirit of that band of pilgrims
in 1686 on yonder hill. These are the honored names

' Committee appointed May 14, 1686, and reported to Roxbury June 12th.

of the first settlers : Thomas and Joseph Bacon, James
Corbin, Benjamin Sabin, Henry Bowen, Thomas
Lyon, Ebenezer Morris, Matthew Davis, Wilham
Lyon, Sr., John Chandler, Sr., Peter Aspinwall,
John Frizzel, Joseph Frizzel, Jonathan Smithers, John
Butcher, Jonathan Davis, Jonathan Peake, Nathaniel
Garey, John Bowen, Nathaniel Johnson, John Hub-
bard, George Griggs, Benjamin Griggs, William Lyon,
Jr., John Leavens, Nathaniel Sanger, Samuel Scar-
borough, Samuel Craft, Samuel May, Joseph Bugbee,
Samuel Peacock, Arthur Humphrey, John Bugbee,
Jr., Andrew Watkins, John Marcy, Edward Morris,
Joseph Peake, John Holmes, and John Chandler, Jr.

Of that list of thirty-nine,' Benjamin Sabin, Nathaniel
Sanger, Nathaniel Garey, John Hubbard, Matthew
Davis, and George Griggs afterwards moved to Pom-
fret ; Peter Aspinwall and his step-sons, the sons of
John Leavens, went to Killingby ; and Arthur Hum-
phrey and others became the first settlers of Ashford.
A few returned to Roxbury. But a large share of
the original settlers lived and died in Woodstock,
including Edward and Ebenezer Morris, Jonathan
and Joseph Peake, James Corbin, Thomas and
Joseph Bacon, Henry Bowen, \UiUfuai«n«i Thomas
Lyon, John Chandler, Sr., and John Chandler, Jr.,
John Butcher, Nathaniel Johnson, Joseph and John

' Though the name of John Ruggles was on the list of "goers " and a house
lot was drawn for him, he did not settle in Woodstock. The family of Kug-
gles is prominent among the first settlers in Pomfret.

Bugbee, John Marcy, John Holmes, and perhaps a few
others. As an illustration of the ages of the pioneers
in 1686, it may be mentioned that Benjamin Griggs
was nineteen ; Joseph Bacon and Andrew Watkins,
twenty ; John Bugbee, John Chandler, Jr., James Cor-
bin, and Jonathan Davis, twenty-one; Peter Aspinwall,
Matthew Davis, John Frizzel, and Lieut. Ebenezer
Morris, twenty-two ; John Butcher and Nathaniel
Garey, twenty-three ; John Bowen and John Marcy,
twenty-four ; George Griggs, John Holmes, and Samuel
May, twenty-five ; Thomas Bacon, twenty-eight ; Sam-
uel Peacock, twenty-nine ; William Lyon, Jr., and Na-
thaniel Sanger, thirty-four ; Thomas Lyon, thirty-eight ;
Nathaniel Johnson, thirty-nine ; Benjamin Sabin and
Samuel Scarborough, forty ; Joseph Peake, forty-one ;
Joseph Bugbee andjohn Leavens, forty-six; Samuel Craft
and Jonathan Peake,' forty-nine ; Deacon John Chan-
dler, fifty-one ; Lieut. Henry Bowen, fifty-three ; Edward
Morris, fifty-six ; and William Lyon Sr., sixty-five."

The first one of the thirty-nine to die was Lieut.
Edward Morris, whose gravestone bears the date of
1689, the oldest in the county .^ The last one of the

' This Jonathan Peake was the father of Jonathan Peake, Jr., born in 1663,
who came to Woodstock in April of 1687.

^ Lot 43 was given to Clement Corbin soon after the drawing of home lots.
The inscription of his rude gravestone reads : " Here lies buried the body of
Clement Corbin, aged 70, deceast August ye ist, 1696."

' The inscription on this small gravestone in the burying-ground on Wood-
stock Hill is read with difficulty and is as follows: "Here lies buried ye
body of Lieu. Edward Morris, deceas'd September 14, 1689."

Many of the first settlers now have no stones to mark their graves, and
perhaps never had.

thirty-nine to die was Thomas Bacon, who lived to be
ninety-six years of age. To show the extreme ages of
some of the Woodstock people, it may here be said
that Paraclete Skinner, now living, remembers Deacon
Jedediah Morse, who died in 1819 at the age of ninety-
three, and Deacon Morse was seventeen years old
when Col. John Chandler, a first settler, was living ;
and thirty-two years of age the year that Thomas
Bacon, another first settler, died. That is, an in-
habitant of this town remembers one who knew some
of the first settlers of Woodstock. Lieut. Henry
Bowen, one of the first settlers, attained the age of
ninety. Deacon Morse's grandmother, who came in
April of 1687 to Woodstock with her husband Jonathan
Peake, Jr.,' likewise lived to be ninety, lacking twelve
days. One of the oldest persons that ever lived in Wood-
stock was Sarah, the daughter of Jonathan Peake, Jr.,
and the mother of Deacon Morse, who reached the
age of ninety-nine, lacking fourty-four days, and who
had about her while living three hundred and nineteen
descendants.^ The combined ages of Thomas Bacon,
Sarah Morse, and Paraclete Skinner is now two hun-
dred and eighty years. Time alone can tell to what
figure their combined ages may attain !

But what a small number in that list of first settlers
have descendants bearing the same family name among

' At that time twenty-four years old.

' MSS. of Deacon Jedediah Morse, in the possession of Henry T. Child, of
Woodstock.

the citizens of Woodstock to-day! Only James Corbin,
William Lyon, John Chandler, Nathaniel Johnson,
Benjamin Griggs, Henry Bowen, Joseph Bugbee,
Nathaniel Sanger, and John Marcy ! But Wood-
stock is proud to own among the descendants of
the first settlers influential and honored citizens of
many towns and cities, and some of them, I rejoice to
say are here to-day.

The first settlers of Woodstock had the right stuff
in them to succeed. After the home-lots were chosen
highways were laid out, a grist-mill and saw-mill built,
bridges constructed, new inhabitants brought in, and
every thing possible was done to make the settle-
ment permanent. A general meeting of the inhabi-
tants was held July 2, 1687, when "John Chandler, Sr.,
Nathaniel Johnson, Joseph Bugbee, James White, and
James Peake, were chosen to order the prudential af-
fairs of the place as selectmen, for the year ensuing."

An effort was now made to get a confirmation of the
grant occupied by the new settlers, but as long as Sir
Edmund Andros was the Royal Governor of the Pro-
vince, it was impossible. A delay ensued until Wil-
liam and Mary became sovereigns of Great Britain.
The new settlers had not yet an organized town gov-
ernment. The settlement, like the first settlements in
Windsor and Hartford, received its name from the
mother town.' But the New Roxbury people wished
to have a name of their own and a town of their
own, At the beginning of the year 1690 they
chose a committee of three to petition the General
Court to substitute a new name for that of New Rox-
bury. The committee at once conferred with the
mother town, for on Jan. 13, 1690, Roxbury held a
town meeting at which it was voted to request the
General Court to allow the settlement in the Nipmuck
country to become a town, to confirm the grant and to
give a suitable name. The New Roxbury committee
pressed their claims, and on March 18, 1690, the Gen-

' Windsor was first called Dorchester and Hartford was first called New-
town.

eral Court confirmed the grant and voted that the name
of the plantation be Woodstock. We owe the name of
Woodstock to Capt. Samuel Sewell' who was Chief-
Justice of Massachusetts from 1 718 to 1728. He has
been called " a typical Puritan " and " the Pepys of
New England," — the man who judged the witches of
Salem and afterwards repented of it.^ In 1690, when
Count Frontenac's ^ forces were coming down from
Canada upon the settlements of the United Colonies,
and Massachusetts determined to ask the help of Con-
necticut in protecting the upper towns on the Connecti-
cut River, Captain Sewell rode past Woodstock on his
way to Connecticut. He was no doubt on business of
state, being one of the Governor's Counsellors, and
one of a Committee of Seven of the Council with the
same power as the Council to arrange " for setting
forth the forces."'* The proximity of New Roxbury
to Oxford in Massachusetts suggested to him, he tells
us, the name of a famous place near old Oxford in
England.

^ Born in England, son of Henry Sewell of Rowley, Mass., and grandson of
Henry Sewell, mayor of Coventry, England. In 16S4, he became an Assistant.

^Memorial "History of Boston," vol. i., 210, 540.

'Hildreth's "History of the United States," vol. ii., 130. Trumbull's
" History of Connecticut," vol. i., 401, 402. Palfrey's " Hist, of New England,"
vol. iv., 46. Holmes' "Annals of America," vol. i., 430, 431. Bancroft's
" Hist, of the U. S.," vol. iii., 183.

'' " Collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc," vol. v., Fifth Series, p. 315, foot-
note. Palfrey's " Hist, of N. E.," vol. iv., 48, foot-note, and appendix. The
other six members of the Committee were Simon Bradstreet (Governor), Sir
William Phips (Governor, 1692-95), Maj. Gen. Wait Winthrop, Maj. Elisha
Hutchinson, Col. Samuel Shrimpton, and Maj. John Richards.

30
In his Diary of March i8, i6 -|-|, Capt. Sewell, says :

" I gave New Roxbury the name of Woodstock, be-
cause of its nearness to Oxford, for the sake of Queen
EHzabeth, and the notable meetinofs that have been
held at the place bearing that name in England, some
of which Dr. Gilbert ' informed me of when in England.
It stands on a Hill. I saw it as I [went] to Coventry,
but left it on the left hand. Some told Capt. Ruggles ^
that I gave the name and put words in his mouth to
desire of me a Bell for the Town." ^

Though Judge Sewell, years after his first visit had
social relations ■* with some of the inhabitants of Wood-
stock, there is no evidence to show that he ever gave
a bell to the town or to the church. ^ But he p^ave us
something better, a good name, — the name of Wood-

' Thomas Gilbert, D.D., of Oxford University, author of "Carmen Con-
gratulatorum." Judge Sewell visited him in England, and was shown by Dr.
Gilbert the Bodleian Library, " a very magnificent Thing." See Sewell papers :
Fifth Series, Mass. Hist. Soc. Collection, vols, v., vi., vii. We may be allowed
to suppose that Dr. Gilbert took Judge Sewell to Woodstock, only eight miles
from Oxford University, where the latter perhaps was impressed for the first
time with the name and historical associations of Woodstock.

"^ Capt. Ruggles of Roxbury, who died Aug. 15, 1692, of whom Sewell says,
in his Diary, Aug. i6th : " Capt. Ruggles also buried this day, died last night,
but could not be kept."

' Proceedings of Mass, Hist. Soc. for Feb., 1873, p. 399.

* Rev. Mr. Dwight, of Woodstock, dined with him Aug. 24, 1718, and made
a prayer at his court Nov. 7, 1718. Also see Diary, Jan. 2, 1724 : " Paid Mr.
Josiah Dwight of Woodstock in full, of his demands for boarding Madam
Usher there about six or seven weeks in the year 1718, ;i^2-ii." John Acquitti-
maug, of Woodstock, an Indian, who lived to be one hundred and fourteen years
old, was entertained by Judge Sewell in 1723. Boston News-Letter, Aug. 29,
1723. The wills of Woodstock people were proved before "the Honorable
Samuel Sewell, Judge of Probate." MSS. of Martin Paine of South Woodstock.

^ Paraclete Skinner, of Woodstock, who remembers the second meeting-
house that was taken down in 1821, says that that structure never had a bell.

stock, associated with the memories of Saxon and
Norman Kings, the spot where King Alfred translated
"The Consolations of Philosophy ," by Boethius, the birth-
place of the poet Chaucer, the prison of Queen Elizabeth.'
History and romance ^ have made illustrious the names
of Woodstock and Woodstock Park, and " the notable
meetings " spoken of by Judge Sewell as having taken
place in Old England have been transferred to the
settlement in New England. Surely the name of
Woodstock, as applied to the little village of New Rox-
bury, has proved to be no misnomer.

It should be said that the western part of the town,
when it became a settlement years after, revived the
old name of New Roxbury. The church in West
Woodstock belonged to what was called the Parish of
New Roxbury, or the Second Precinct of Woodstock.^

' While in custody at Woodstock, Queen Elizabeth, according to the chron-
icler, Raphael Holinshed, wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass in her room

these words :

" Much suspected — of me
Nothing proved can be.
Quoth Elizabeth, prisoner."
' Sir Walter Scott's novel of " Woodstock."

* The last time that the name of New Roxbury, as applied to the name of
the whole town, appears in the Proprietors' Records of Woodstock is March
i8, 1689. The first time the name of Woodstock appears is May 26, 1690 :
Woodstock Records.

VI.

The most pressing duty for our ancestors to perform,
after securing a name and legalized status for the town,
was the settlement of " an able, orthodox, godly minis-
ter." The Rev. Josiah Dwight, a graduate of Harvard
College in the class of 1687, received the appointment,
and was installed October 17, 1690, receiving £40 the
first year, £5o the second, and £60 the third year and
thereafter. It was with difficulty, however, that these
sums were paid, and when, some years after, the
account was settled by the payment of what was due,
he gave a receipt in full "from the beginning of the
world to May 6, 1696." A home lot was allowed Mr.
Dwight according to the original drawing of lots, and
arrangements were made to build a home for him
immediately after his settlement. The following year,'
it was determined to construct a house of worship,
which was completed early' in 1694. This was the
first meeting-house in Windham County, and here
gathered, on Sabbath days, the settlers from miles
around. The people of Pomfret attended church in
this rude structure until i7i5, when their own society
was organized.

' i6gi. * March.

The officers of the new town elected in 1690' were
John Chandler, Sr., William Bartholomew, Benjamin
Sabin, John Leavens, and Joseph Biigbee, as select-
men, and John Chandler, Jr., as town clerk. All of
those men to-day have descendants in Woodstock or its
immediate vicinity. At that time, the men of Wood-
stock imposed a fine of one and six pence upon every
one who failed to attend the town meeting, and six
pence an hour for tardiness. Disputes regarding
titles to land, and the boundary line dividing the north
half of the town, and disputes with the mother-town
regarding this northern half, which belonged to Rox-
bury according to the terms of the grant, were vexa-
tious, and not in every respect creditable to Woodstock.
But Roxbury's interest in the northern half of Wood-
stock continued till 17^'^, when the lands had all been
sold or become individual property. Large tracts,
however, were held by Roxbury and Woodstock
speculators for many years afterward.

Troubles with the Indians, who returned to their old
huntincr and fishins: haunts after the settlement of the
town, broke out in 1696," and again in 1700 and 1704,
and even as late as 1724. When a war broke out
abroad, there was trouble with the Indians at home.
When an Indian outbreak was threatened, the town

' Town meeting November 27th and 28th.

* Woodstock, at this time, was under the restrictions of frontier towns. It
was calleda " frontier town" in 1695.— Mass. Hist. Society Proceedings, 1871-
1873, P- 395-

received some military assistance from the colony gov-
ernment. Such threatened outbreaks retarded the
progress of the settlement.

After discussing the question for several years, the
town determined, in 17 19,' to erect a new meeting-
house near the burying-ground, instead of at the south
end of the village, where the old building stood, yet
so straitened were the people in their circumstances
that they applied to the General Court in Boston,
requesting that the unoccupied lands of the residents
and non-residents of the town be taxed to the extent
of £2 5o, to be applied to the building of a church.
As the non-residents' lands were almost entirely in the
north half of the grant, and belonged to Roxbury
people, Roxbury stoudy opposed the tax in a memo-
rial to the General Court. When the General Court
refused the petition, Woodstock asked to be excused
from sending her representative to Boston. The
town's representative at this time, in fact the first and
only representative for many years, was Captain John
Chandler, who, like his father Deacon John Chandler,
was one of the first setders. He surveyed lands in
Woodstock and neighboring towns, and owned large
tracts of territory in Connnecticut and Massachu-
setts. To avoid the necessity of sending to Boston to
have deeds recorded and wills proven. Captain Chand-
ler tried to get the consent of the General Court in

' December 28th.

1720 for the formation of a new county, to be called
Worcester County, of which Woodstock should be a
part, but a delay ensued until 1731, when Captain,
now Colonel, Chandler was successful. Woodstock
became one of the most prominent towns of Worcester
County, and John Chandler was made Chief-Justice of
the Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions.'

' l^incoln's " History of Worcester County."

VII.

Ecclesiastical affairs have been so interwoven with
town affairs, that it is impossible to give a sketch of
Woodstock without giving a history of the churches.
It may, however, be done briefly, as others have been
appointed to speak specially for the different church
organizations of the town. Though the first minister, the
Rev. Josiah Dwight, was of the " Standing Order," so-
called, and believed in the Cambridge platform, yet he
was suspected of theological looseness and, besides
many idiosyncrasies, was accused of " speculating in
the wild lands of Killingly." The first settlers had no
end of trouble with him, especially regarding money
matters, and he was finally removed September 3, 1726.
The next regular minister was Rev. Amos Throop, who
was installed May 24, 1727. Like Mr. Dwight, he was
a graduate of Harvard College, and came to Wood-
stock at the age of twenty-five. Naturally he found
fault when the town attempted to pay him his salary
in the depreciated currency of the time. But the eight
years of his ministry endeared him to the settlement,
and his sudden death in 1735 ' was keenly felt by his

* Sept. 7th.
36

7>1

parishioners. The town assumed the expense of his
gravestone, upon which may be read these words :

" O cruel death, to snatch from us below,

One fit to live within the spheres on high ;
But since the great Creator orders so,
Here at his feet he doth submissive lie."

During the pastorate of Mr. Throop the western
part of the town ' had received some settlers, mostly
the sons of Woodstock's first settlers. In 1727 Joshua
Chandler took possession of some land that had been
given him by his father, Col. John Chandler, and repre-
sentatives of the families of Child, Corbin, Lyon, Aspin-
wall, Bugbee, Morris, Marcy, Morse, Payson, Perrin,
Johnson, Frizzel, Griggs, and Paine soon followed. In
1733- the town arranged to have a school-house built
in this part of the town, and, the settlers increasing,
West Parish desired ^ to have religious services of its
own for four months of the year at the expense of the
whole town. This request, it was argued, was only fair,
inasmuch as the western half was obliged to contribute to
the support of the Church on the Hill. But the town re-
fused "> to assume any of the charges. After trying the
experiment for two winters, the West Parish people
found the expense of supporting both ministers to be

' Manuscript Records of Second Precinct of Woodstock, or Parish of New
Roxbury, in the possession of G. Clinton Williams, of West Woodstock.
^ May i6th.

^ Petition to town Nov. 2, 1736.
' July, 1737.

too great a burden, and they therefore again asked ' the
help of the town, and were refused. They still per-
sisted, and petitioned^ that the western half might be
formed into a distinct township. Town meetings were
held, and at last permission was given ^ them to ad-
dress the General Court in Boston on the subject. But
their petition to the General Court was dismissed. The
West Woodstock people, however, insisted on the for-
mation of a parish where they could worship God in
their own fashion, and not be obliged to aid any church
outside of their parish. They were willing to give up
all idea of a town of their own. This modified request
was now made to the town •* and to the General
Court.5 The General Court complied by passing an
act in 1743,^ incorporating the district as "The West
Parish of Woodstock." A meeting was at once held,^
at which it was determined to survey the Hne dividing
the two portions of the town. West Parish was now
called by the old name of New Roxbury. These acts
were afterwards approved by the General Assembly of
Connecticut when Woodstock withdrew from under
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.^ In 1747 Rev. Ste-
phen Williams was ordained pastor.

The church*^ on the Hill was under the pastorate of

' 1739- ^ Oct. 2, 1741. 'April, 1742.

* Letter of Aug., 1742, to selectmen.

^ Nov. 18, 1742. '^ Sept. 14th. ' In the school-house Sept. 27th.

* Line dividing East and West Parishes approved by General Assembly of
Connecticut in 1753, and name of New Roxbury approved in 1754.

' The old First Church. See Records of First and Third Congregational
Churches, and Miss Larned's " History of Windham County."

Rev. Abel S. Stiles, who had been ordained in
1737.' But the fact that Mr. Stiles was a graduate of
Yale College* instead of Harvard, as his two prede-
cessors had been, and his family connections^ were all
with Connecticut, his parishioners were led to believe
that he would favor the " Saybrook Platform " of faith,
rather than the " Cambridge Platform," and if there
was one thing our ancestors abhorred quite as much
as Episcopacy or popery it was the " Saybrook Plat-
form." To be tainted with that form of faith, as was
the case with Mr. Stiles after his settlement in Wood-
stock, was heresy indeed, and Woodstock was deter-
mined, according to her grant of 1683, to have
none other but an " able, orthodox, godly minister."
Instead of attendino- the Association of Ministers in
Massachusetts, Mr. Stiles preferred the meetings of the
Windham County Association in Connecticut, and
when Woodstock became a part of Connecticut the
troubles with Mr. Stiles increased. Councils were
held. Pastor and parishioners tried to discipline each
other. The General Assembly of Connecticut was
appealed to. Threats — even violence was resorted to.
But without going into the details of this long-pro-
tracted struggle, let it be said that there were two

' July 27th. 'Class of 1733.

^ He was the son of John Stiles, who belonged to one of the oldest families
of W^indsor, and was the brother of Rev. Isaac Stiles, a graduate of Yale Col-
lege in the class of 1722, and was uncle of Ezra Stiles, President of Yale
College. President Stiles often visited Woodstock after his uncle had settled
at Muddy Brook, now called East Woodstock.

parties in the controversy, one side sympathizing with
Mr. Stiles in his «*©Te4tbeEiJ theological views, and the
other side at first insisting on a minister who should
conform in all respects to the " Standing Order," and
afterwards opposed to Mr. Stiles personally as well as
theologically. The Stiles party had favored, while
the anti-Stiles party had opposed, the annexation of
Woodstock to Connecticut. The result of the quarrel
was a break in the church in 1760. The North
Society was constituted by act' of the General Assem-
bly, and Mr. Stiles and his followers went to Muddy
Brook. Thus was formed the Third Consi'reo-ational
Church of Woodstock, and here Mr. Stiles continued
to preach until his death in 1783.^ When it was
determined in 183 1, by the church in East Woodstock,
to build a new meeting-house on the spot of the old
one erected in 1767, the people in Village Corners ob-
jected to the location and formed a society of their own
— the Fourth Conereeational Church of Woodstock.

After the departure of Mr. Stiles the First Church
was without a pastor for three years. Much time was
spent in " going after ministers." The young Yale
graduates who preached on trial did not please the
church, whose sympathies were still with Massachusetts.
Finally the Rev. Abiel Leonard, a graduate of Harvard
College,^ was installed on June 23, 1763. Of the
twelve churches asked to assist in the ordination only

' Oct., 1761. * July 25th, at the age of 74. ^ Class of 1759.

one' was a Connecticut organization. In fact it was
not until the year i8i5 that the church, after an adher-
ence to the Cambridge order of faith for a hundred
and twenty-five years, finally accepted the " Say brook
Platform," and joined the Connecticut association.
The church was prosperous under Mr. Leonard.
Largely owing to his influence the quarrel between
the First and Third Churches was healed.^ In 177S,
on the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, Mr.
Leonard was made Chaplain of the Third Regiment
of Connecticut troops. The church, at the request of
the commander. Colonel, aftewards General, Israel
Putnam, granted the necessary leave of absence.
The following year Washington and Putnam joined in
writing a letter^ to the church at Woodstock asking for
a continued leaved of absence for Mr. Leonard, prais-
ing him in the highest terms, and saying :

" He is employed in the glorious work of attending
to the morals of a brave people who are fighting for
their liberties — the liberties of the people of Wood-
stock—the liberties of all America."

Agreeable a gentleman as Mr. Leonard was, he was
suddenly superseded while on a visit to Woodstock,
and on receiving the mortifying news when eji rotite
to join the army he at once committed suicide.

' Killingly.

* Vote of First Church passed Dec. 8, 1766.

^ Letter dated Cambridge, March 24, 1776.

If ever there was an " able, orthodox, godly minis-
ter," of the true Massachusetts type, such as old Wood-
stock always loved to have, he was the Rev. Eliphalet
Lyman, who was ordained in 1779. Although a
graduate of Yale College,' he fulfilled the conditions of
the Cambridge Platform, and continued pastor of the
First Church for forty-five years, and was warmly in-
terested in the religious and educational development
of the town. He was the last of the historic ministers
of Woodstock. He was respected and he was feared.
The boys stopped playing ball when " Old Priest
Lyman," in cocked hat and knee breeches, remembered
by some of you here to-day, walked up the common.

' Class of 1776.

VIII.

It should now be related how Woodstock, settled
under Massachusetts, became a part of the State of
Connecticut. Massachusetts claimed Woodstock, be-
cause the grant was supposed to lie within her chartered
bounds as surveyed in 1642, and that claim was what
Major Daniel Gookin referred to when he rebuked
the agent of Uncas in 1674, during his visit with John
Eliot, at Woodstock. But Massachusetts did not be-
lieve that the line of 1 642 was wrong when she confirmed
the grant to the Roxbury settlers. She even censured
Woodstock for daring to ask Connecticut to confirm
a portion of the grant that fell south of this line.
Though Connecticut justly held she was entitled to
Woodstock, according to the terms of her charter, she
was, nevertheless, willing to forego her claim to this
town, provided Massachusetts would allow her to have
the jurisdiction over other territory claimed by both
colonies. But the repeated attempts to settle the con-
troversy failed, and it was not till 1713 that an agree-
ment was finally concluded. For the privilege of
having jurisdiction over Woodstock and the other

towns claimed by both sides, Massachusetts agreed to
compensate Connecticut, by giving- her unimproved
lands in Western Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
These lands were therefore called " equivalent lands,"
and were sold by Connecticut for $2,274, ^^^ the
money given to Yale College. Woodstock was en-
tirely satisfied with this agreement, as all her associa-
tions were with Massachusetts. But in 1747 the town
thought that her taxes, which had been increased
owing to the French and Spanish wars,' would be
lighter, and her privileges greater, if she followed
Sufifield, Enfield, and Somers " in trying to get off to
Connecticut." So Woodstock applied to Connecticut,
claiming that the agreement of 1713 had been made
without her consent. After much deliberation, Con-
necticut voted in 1749 to receive the town, and de-
clared the agreement of 1 7 1 3 not binding. Woodstock
was delighted at being received into Connecticut, and
at a memorable town meeting^ made Thomas Chandler
and Henry Bowen the first members of the General
Assembly. Though Woodstock has since 1749 been
a part of this State, Massachusetts would never for-
mally yield jurisdiction over the town, and even as
late as 1768 warned the inhabitants not to pay taxes
to Connecticut. In fact had it not been for the Revo-
lution, Massachusetts might still be claiming Wood-

' Hutchinson's " History of Massachusetts," vol. iii., 6-8 ; voh ii., 363-396.
" July 28, 1749.

Stock.' It might be added that Woodstock, in being
annexed to Connecticut, lost about three thousand
acres north of the colony line. This strip of land was
known as the " Middlesex Gore "'for forty-five years,
and was annexed to Dudley and Sturbridge in 1794.

After becoming a part of Connecticut, Woodstock
was anxious that the northern half of Windham County
should be made into a separate county, of which
Woodstock should be the shire-town, but as Pomfret
also desired the county seat, and as the State seemed
unwilling to act, the project fell through.^

' Woodstock speaks of Massachusetts' repeated claims in a memorial to
Conn. Gen. Assembly, May 2, 1771.

" Gen. Putnam was much interested in this project. A meeting to promote
the idea was held at his house in Pomfret, Feb. 11, 1771. The State again
refused the application for a new county, when Pomfret applied in 1786 for a
new county, " with Pomfret for shire-town."

IX.

Woodstock's military glory is something of which
she may well be proud. Representatives of the Mor-
ris, Bowen, Hubbard, and Johnson families, who came
to Woodstock in 1686, fought under Captain Isaac
Johnson, of Roxbury, in King Philip's War, and were
in the famous Narragansett battle in 1675, when Cap-
tain Johnson was killed.' For the first forty years after
the settlement of the town the Indian troubles made
every man acquainted with the use of fire-arms, and
when in later years there appeared no danger at
home, our ancestors were ready to fight abroad either
savage or foreign foes. In 1724, Colonel John Chand-
ler received orders from Boston to impress twenty
Woodstock men for the frontier service,^ which meant
that they should fight Indians in Central Massachusetts.
When the news of the war between France and Great
Britain was received in Boston in 1744,^ fifty* men

' Captain Johnson was the father of Nathaniel Johnson, and father-in-law of
Lieutenant Henry Bowen, both first settlers of Woodstock,

' " The Chandler Family," by Dr. George Chandler.

'England declared war against France March 31st.

* Seven hundred men from Massachusetts, of which Woodstock was then a
part, were impressed for this service.

from Colonel Thomas Chandler's' regiment guarded the
frontier, and history declares that this regiment, com-
manded by a Woodstock man, rendered efficient ser-
vice in the capture of Louisburg in 1745.'' In 1748,
before the treaty of Aix la Chapelle had been signed,^
the death was chronicled of several Woodstock men
who had gone up into New Hampshire to fight '^ the
Indians with a company of colony troops. In the
French and Indian War ^ for the conquest of Canada,
the families of Bacon, Bugbee, Child, Corbin, Chandler,
Frizzel, Griggs, Holmes, Lyon, Marcy, McClellan, Man-
ning, Peake, and Perrin had representatives who dis-
tinguished themselves in the service. Woodstock and
Pomfret boys composed the company of Captain Israel
Putnam in this war. The McClellan and Lyon of
the Seven Years' War were the McClellan and Lyon
of the Revolution, and were of the same family as the
McClellan and Lyon so celebrated and so much beloved
in our own Civil War.

The service rendered by Woodstock during the
Revolution was most valuable. The town voted to
purchase as few British goods as possible, and

^ Lieut. -Col. Thomas Chandler was the son of Col. John Chandler, and was
Woodstock's first representative to the General Assembly of Connecticut.
Ante p. 44.

* The forces were furnished by New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connec-
ticut, and amounted to 4,070. ^ October 7th.

* Fight at " Charlestown, No. 4," New Hampshire, May 2, 1748, in which
Peter Perrin and Aaron Lyon, of Woodstock, were killed.

' Or the Seven Years' War (1753-1760).

sent sixty- five fat sheep to Boston as a contribution to
alleviate what the town records call " the distressed
and suffering circumstances " of that city. Captain
Elisha Child, Charles Church Chandler, Jedediah
Morse, Captain Samuel McClellan, and Nathaniel
Child, were appointed a committee ' " for maintaining
a correspondence with the towns of this and the neigh-
boring colonies." The spirit of revolution, which had
been growing, rose to fever-heat when the powder
stored in Cambridge by the patriots was removed, in
September of 1774, to Boston. The news flew as fast
through the New England towns as horses' hoofs could
take it. A son of Esquire Wolcott brought the news
to Curtis' tavern in Dudley, and a son of Captain Clark
carried it to his father's house in Woodstock, where it
was carried to Colonel Israel Putnam in Po.mfret.'^
The young men of Woodstock did not wait for the call
to arms. They hurried to Cambridge, and, with the
inhabitants of that and other towns, were with diffi-
culty restrained from marching into Boston to demand,
with their loaded muskets, the return of the powder.
At the very beginning of the Revolution Woodstock
was eager to do its duty. When the cry went through
New England that blood had been shed at that " birth-
place of American liberty," the historic Lexington, one
hundred and eighty-nine men from Woodstock

'At town meeting, June 21, 1774.

' Miss Ellen D. Larned's " History of Windham County."

answered that call/ Ephraim Manning, Stephen
Lyon, Asa Morris, and William Frizzel were officers in
Colonel Israel Putnam's regiment when that regiment
was stationed at Cambridge, while Captain Samuel
McClellan had charge of the troop of horse, of which
John Flynn was trumpeter. Captain Nathaniel Marcy,
Captains Elisha and Benjamin Child, Lieut. Josiah
Child, Captain Daniel Lyon, Jabez and John Fox,
Samuel Perry, and many other Woodstock men, ren-
dered services in this war equally efficient. When
Samuel Perry, in his old age, used to go up to the
store on Woodstock Hill in the evening, the boys
would ask him to tell them about the battle of Bunker
Hill, and would always ask if he had killed any of the
British in that battle. " I don't know whether I killed
any," was his reply, " but I took good aim, fired, and
saw them drop ! " Another Woodstock name, always
honored at home as another of the same family name is
to-day no less honored abroad, was Dr. David Holmes
He had served as surgeon in the French war, and —

" lived to see

The bloodier strife that made our nation free,
To serve with willing toil, with skilful hand,
The war-worn saviors of the bleeding land." ^

' There is no evidence to prove the reiterated statement that one hundred
and eighty-nine Woodstock men fought at the battle of Bunker Hill. This
number was stationed at Cambridge, and some of them may have been at
Bunker Hill.

'■'Oliver Wendell Holmes at Roseland Park, July 4, 1877.

When Washington assumed charge of the troops in
Cambridge, the Rev. Abiel Leonard, the beloved pas-
tor of the First Church at Woodstock, preached most
acceptably. Washington heard him and became his
warm friend. Woodstock's importance during the
Revolution was considerable. One line of stages be-
tween Woodstock and New London and another line
between Woodstock and New Haven and Hartford
were established, which carried the war news weekly
to be distributed through the colony and thence taken
to New York. Durino- the entire war Woodstock did
more than her share. While there were many from
this town who served the patriot cause with glory to
themselves and honor to Woodstock, the name of
Capt., afterwards Gen., Samuel McClellan stands out
the most illustrious. When the currency of the Conti-
nentals had depreciated and no funds were forthcoming
with which to pay the soldiers. Gen., or more exactly
Col., McClellan advanced ^i,ooo from his own private
purse to pay the men of his regiment. But a memo-
rial of the Revolution in which Woodstock may well
take the greatest pride is found in the historic elm-
trees in South Woodstock, planted by the wife of Gen-
eral McClellan on receiving the news of the battle of
Lexington. All honor to the men of Woodstock who
fought for and gained their liberties in the Revolution,
and all honor to their wives, who were equally patriotic
at home !

In the War of i8i 2 Woodstock was also ready to do
its duty. When Major WilHam Flynn, of Woodstock
Hill, received the news, one evening just after dark,
that several British men-of-war were hovering about
New London, and that it was in danger of attack, he
rode horseback about the country during the night, to
see officers and men and warn them to assemble on the
Common at noon the next day ; but when he returned
to his home at sunrise he found the Common covered
with soldiers ready to go to New London immediately.
The patriotic spirit always characteristic of Woodstock
was conspicuous in the War of 181 2.

Woodstock was no less patriotic during the Re-
bellion. When President Lincoln called for volunteers
to maintain the unity of the country, this town did her
full share in that struggle. Many of you remember at-
tending the funeral of General Nathaniel Lyon, who was
killed at the begfinnine of the war and was buried with
military honors in our neighboring town of Eastford.
Though not a native of Woodstock, Gen. Lyon was
descended from an honored family which has been
conspicuous in the history of this town from the day of
its settlement. But a name even more illustrious is
that of Gen. George B. McClellan, whose grandfather
was a native of Woodstock, and whose great-grand-
father was Gen. Samuel McClellan, and who himself,
as a boy, visited the town. You saw him beneath
these very trees two years ago. You heard him speak

at that time words of love for Woodstock and words
of welcome to distinofuished stranofers. His voice is
no longer heard, but the name of General McClellan
will be remembered as long as the name of Woodstock
itself shall last. Blessed then be the memory of Gen.
George B. McClellan ! Woodstock will ever cherish
his services and the services of all its sons who fought
for their country in the terrible struggle between the
North and the South ! The ei'aves in the different
burying-grounds of the town, that you annually decor-
ate with flowers, tell more eloquently than words what
Woodstock did durinor the Civil War.

Woodstock has never been negligent in the cause
of education. As soon as the settlement became an
organized town, John Chandler, Jr., was appointed to
instruct the children to write and cipher. As the town
o-rew in population, it was divided into school districts.
In 1739 was established the United English Library for
the Propagation of Christianity and Useful Knowledge.
Col. John Chandler was the moderator at the first
meeting, and the Rev. Abel Stiles, John May, Benja
min Child, and Penl^l Bowen, of Woodstock, and
leading citizens of Pomfret and Killingly, assisted in
the organization. ' It was Gen. Samuel McClellan and
his sons John and James McClellan, the Rev. Eliphalet
Lyman, William Bowen, Parker Comings, Nehemiah
Child, Ebenezer Smith, William Potter, Hezekiah Bug-
bee, Benjamin Lyon, Ebenezer Skinner, and Amos
Paine who established Woodstock Academy, at the be-
ginning of the present century, and the influence of
that honored institution has been deep and far-reach-

' Rev. Abel Styles subscribed the largest sum, ^30. He was fond of belles-
lettres, and in a communication to his church, speaks of " his beloved studies."
Under his inspiration and instruction, Woodstock and Pomfret young men
entered Yale College.

ing. But who can measure the good done by Wood-
stock Academy, or by the different churches and other
organizations of the town ? Such institutions are our
heritage, and our duty and privilege it is to improve
their character and transmit them to future generations,
with the memories and traditions of the town itself.

Citizens of Woodstock, listen while I call the roll
of some of the distinguished men who have lived or
were born in the town. Of the first settlers was Col.
John Chandler, probably the most distinguished citizen
that Woodstock had during its first century, the man
who made Woodstock known and respected through-
out New England. His descendants include the Rev.
Thomas Bradbury Chandler, D.D., Winthrop Chand-
ler, the artist, the Hon. John Church Chandler, Judge
John Winthrop Chandler, and others, who have been
prominent in Woodstock and throughout the country.
No one of the first settlers was more distinguished
than Edward Morris, who died three years after the
town was settled. His family was prominent in the
history of old Roxbury, and all through the last century
in Woodstock. Commodore Charles Morris, a native '
of Woodstock and well known in the War of 1812,
and his son, Commodore George N. Morris, Comman-
der in the Civil War of the United States sloop-of-
war Cumberland in Hampton Roads, belong to the

' 1784-1856.
55

same family, as well as the Hon. J. F. Morris, of
Hartford, whom I am sure we are glad to wel-
come as our presiding- officer to-day. John Marcy,
a first settler, was the ancestor of Hon. William
^icc^^'^^ teeq^rFFd Marcy, Governor of the State of New York,
Secretary of War under President Polk and Secretary
of State under President Pierce. Abiel Holmes,'
D.D., LL.D., author of " Annals of America," and his
father. Dr. David Holmes, a surgeon in the French and
Revolutionary wars, were born in Woodstock, and
were descended from John Holmes, a first settler.
Abiel Holmes' son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, though
not born in Woodstock, will be remembered, I am
sure, for the beautiful tribute he paid his ancestors in
the poem he read in this very park in 1877. The
name of Morse has always been identified with Wood-
stock. Deacon Jedediah Morse held about all the
offices in town that he could lawfully hold, and was
deacon of the First Church for forty-three years.
His son, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., a graduate of
Yale College and the father of American geography,
was also born in Woodstock. His grandson was Prof.
Samuel F. B. Morse, who was more widely known as
the inventor of the electric telegraph. Another Wood-
stock boy was General William Eaton ^ who ran away,
from home at the age of sixteen to enter the Revolu-
tionary War, and was distinguished during the first
' 1763-1837. * 1764-1804.

years of the century as the protector of American com-
merce in the Mediterranean. Amasa Walker, too,
was born in Woodstock, the father of poHtical economy
in this country, or better still, the father of Gen. Fran-
cis A. Walker, the respected President of the School
of Technology in Boston. Another honored name in
Woodstock is that of Williams, including Samuel
Williams, Sr., the Commissioner of Roxbury in the
setdement of New Roxbury, the Rev. Stephen Wil-
liams, the first pastor of the church at West Parish,
and Jared W. Williams, the Governor of Vermont
and a native of this town. Governors, members of
Congress, men distinguished in law, theology, and
medicine, in trade and on the farm, have been born in
Woodstock. The roll of honor could be multiplied ;
but in speaking of the distinguished men it would be
impossible to forget the lessons taught, the struggle, J
endured, and the sacrifices made by the mothers of
Woodstock, who all through these two centuries have
inspired their sons with feelings that have made them
industrious, honored, and religious. Praise be, there-
fore, to the women of Woodstock ! This town has the
right to be proud of such noble sons and daughters,
and we have the right to be proud that such a town as
old Woodstock has nourished us and blessed us with
such memories and influences.

XII.

What has the town done to make us proud of
it ? It has exerted an influence for good upon the
country wherever its inhabitants have settled. Such
settlements have been many. During the early
history of the plantation, Woodstock men assisted
largely in the settlement of Ashford, Pomfret, Kil-
lingly, and other neighboring towns. As the surplus
population increased, migrations were made to the
wild regions of Vermont and New Hampshire. Later
came the settlements made by Connecticut, in the
provinces of New York and Pennsylvania, in which
Woodstock families were almost without exception
represented. At the close of the Revolution the wave
of emigration extended still farther West, and some
of the oldest families in Ohio trace their ancestry back
to this very town. To-day Woodstock has its repre-
sentatives in almost every State in the Union, and the
material growth and prosperity of the country has been
in full measure owing to the settlements made by men
from towns in New England like Woodstock. The
ideas inherited from Puritan ancestors and modified
according to existing circumstances have made towns,

cities, even States, in which the whole country to-day
takes the warmest pride. The man who inherits New
Eno-land traditions from towns Hke Woodstock is worth
more to the country than an army of Anarchists and
Socialists.

Woodstock is distinguished, too, for its " notable
meetings," inherited from the Woodstock in England,
of which Judge Sewell speaks. The first " notable
meeting " was when John Eliot preached to the Indians
on Plaine Hill. The second " notable meeting " was
when the first settlers drew their home lots in Wabba-
quasset Hall. The third " notable meeting " was at
the funeral of Col. John Chandler in 1743, attended by
the leadine men in the colonies of Massachusetts and
Connecticut. The church meetings of the last century,
the town meeting when Woodstock transferred its
allegiance to Connecticut, meetings during the Revolu-
tion, the old " training days " on Woodstock Common,
have been followed by no end of " notable meetings "
during the present century. But the one " notable
meeting " that those of us present here to-day have in
mind, was when Ulysses S. Grant, General of the Army,
Savior of the Country and President of the United
States, visited the town in 1870.

But the chief glory of the town of Woodstock has
been its love of local law. The source of the power
of the continental nations of Europe may be traced
back through the centuries to the village communities

and Teutonic townships. In the mark, tithing, and
parish of England the same principle of local self-gov-
ernment may be seen ; and so our own nation's great-
ness, through Anglo-Saxon inheritance, has its source,
not in the State, city, or county, but in the little school
districts, villages, and towns of New England. Wood-
stock has been like a miniature republic, and has always
believed in the supremacy of local law. Its refusal to
send its representative to the General Court at Boston
unless it could tax its own property as it pleased, and
the refusal, for political reasons, of its delegates at the
State Convention in 1788 to vote for the ratification of
the Constitution of the United States, are instances of
the extreme independence of Woodstock. What it
conscientiously believed, the town has never been slow
to proclaim. Tenacious as Woodstock has always
been of its privileges and its rights, its loyalty to the
country, from the day the thirteen colonies became a
nation, has never been questioned.

XIII.

I have given scarce more than a sketch in outline of
what the history of Woodstock has been during the
two hundred years since that historic band of brave
boys and sturdy men, of deft-handed girls and sober
matrons, swarmed like bees from the Roxbury hive '
and settled on the Wabbaquasset hills. What Wood-
stock's history shall be remains for you, men and
women of Woodstock, to develop. The fathers have
kept bright the honest traditions and stout indepen-
dence, the industrious thrift and religious faith which
their Puritan fathers brought to the new settlement.
The sons of this generation can be trusted to preserve
and transmit them to their descendants. You, men of
Woodstock, have your duties in the family, on the
farm, toward your schools, and to your churches. All
that the fathers have done puts an added obligation
upon you. The improvement and development of the
town depend on the individual exertions of its citizens.
If you are young, infuse some of your own enthusiasm
and intelligence into its different organizations. If you

' Cotton Mather: " Massachusetts soon became like a hive overstocked with
bees, and many thought of swarming into new plantations."

are old, remember these institutions in a substantial
way. Woodstock will be what you make it. Michel
Angelo saw in the block the exquisite unsculptured
statue. Many blows of the chisel were necessary to
disclose the perfect ideal to the eyes of a wondering
world. In thought, in plan, in ideal, this town has been
almost a perfect organization ; but only those whose
high vision is willing to pierce through all encrusting
imperfections shall be the artists whose toil and sacri-
fices shall make this dear, noble, historic town of
Woodstock an honor to the State and a blessinof to its
citizens. It is said that old John Eliot, from the high
pulpit in Roxbury, used to pray every Sabbath for the
new settlers at Woodstock. The words of those
prayers are not preserved, but may the spirit of them
come down through the centuries to inspire the hearts
of all who inherit the blood of the early settlers of
this ancient town. God, our fathers' God, bless old
Woodstock !

INDEX.

Academy, Establishment of, 53 *-^
Annexation to Connecticut in iq49>
44

Bacon, Thomas, 26
Black, James, 17
Bowen, Lieut. Henry, 26

Chandler, Captain John, 34

Charles Church, 4S

Col. John, 55

Col. Thomas, 47

Hon. John Church, 55

Judge John Winthrop, 55

Rev. Thos. Bradbury, D.D., 55

Winthrop, 55

Characteristics of the place and peo-
ple, 58

Child, Captain Benjamin, 49

Captain Elisha, 48, 49

Lieut. Josiah, 49

Nathaniel, 48

Church, First built 1694, 32

Fourth Congregational, estab-
lished 1767, 40

Third Congregational, estab-
lished 1760, 40

Churches, History of, 36

Connecticut, First members to General
Assembly of, 44

" Connecticut Park," 13

Court, Establishment of, among In-
dians, 17

Cradock, Governor, 14

Curtis, John, 21

Distinguished men of Woodstock, 55

Dudley, Joseph, 20

Thomas, Letter of, to Countess

of Lincoln, March 12, 1630-I, 8
Dwight, Rev. Josiah, first minister,

installed October 17, 1690, 32

Eaton, General William, 56
Education, progress of, 53
Eliot's visit to Woodstock, Narrative
of, by Gookin, 15

Families represented in French and
Indian War, 47

Fines imposed for non-attendance at
town meeting, 33

Fox, Jabez, 49

John, 49

French and Indian War, Woodstock
families represented in, 47

Frizzel, William, 49

Frontier service. Twenty men im-
pressed for, 1724, 46

General Court, First, in America, Bos-
ton, September 28, 1630, 9

Gookin, Major Daniel, magistrate of
all Indian towns, 1656, 14

Grant, General U. S., Visit of, to
Woodstock, 59

Gravestone of Edward Morris (oldest
in county — 1689), 25

Holmes, Abiel, 56

Doctor David, 56

Oliver Wendell, 56

Home lots. Drawing lots for, 23

Indian church, First, in America, estab-
lished by Eliot at Natick in 1651, 14

Indians, Religious instruction of, in
1629, 14

Troubles with, 33

King Philip's war. Consequences of , 18

Leonard, Rev. Abiel, installed pastor,
1763, 40

appointed chaplain of Third

Regiment of Connecticut, 41

death of, 41

Longevity of some of the present in-
habitants, 26

Lots drawn for home lots, 23

Lyman, Rev. Eliphalet, ordained in

1779. 42

" Old Priest,' 42

Lyon, Captain Daniel, 49
Stephen, 49

McClellan, Captain Samuel, 48, 49

Gen. Geo. B., 51

Manning, Ephraim, 49

Marcy, Captain Nathaniel, 49

Hon. Wm. Leonard, 56

John, 56

Massachusetts Bay, first organized set-
tlement on, 8

" Middlesex Gore," 45

Military renown of men of Woodstock
46

Minister, appointment of first. 32

Morris, Asa, 49

Commodore Charles, 55

George N., 55

Edward, 21

Hon. J. F., 56

Morse, Jedediah, 48, 56

Rev. Jedediah, D.D., 56

Samuel F. B., 56

Sarah, 26

Nipmuck country. Derivation of
name, 12

Description of, 12

Desertion of, after King Philip's

war, 18

Purchase of, from Indians, 20

"Notable Meeting," 59

Oldman, John, 12

"Old Thirteen," Names of, 23

Perry, Saml., 49
Praying Villages, 14
Pulpit Rock, iS
Putnam, Capt. Israel, 47
Pynchun, William, 10

Quinnatisset, 15

Rebellion, Services of Woodstock,

men in, 51
Refusal to send representatives to

General Court at Boston, 60
Religious services among Indians,

Description of, 15
Revolution, Company of one hun-
dred and eighty-nine men formed

for service in, 48
Service rendered by town durinc

the, 47 ^

Roxbury— Deputies sent to Boston

Assembly, 1634, 9

Early settlers' names, 10

Eliot, Rev. John, pastor of

First Church, established 1632, 10

Roxbury— First settlers, where from, 9

Founders' names, 10

Prominent in organizing settle-
ment of Woodstock, ri

Settlement of, Sept. 28, 1630, 9

Ruggles, John, 21
Samuel, 21

Sampson, Indian teacher at Wab-

quissit, 15
School-house built 1733, 37
Selectmen, Names of first, 33
Names of first, chosen by New

Roxbury, 27
Settlement, Arrangements for, 21

Committee appointed to find

place suitable for, 21

Name of, changed from New

Roxbury to Woodstock, 28

of other towns by Woodstock

men, 58

Petition for land for, 16S3, 21

Time granted for, 21

extended, 22

Settlers, Ages of first, 25

Descendants of, now in town, 26

Enterprise of, 27

First death among, 25

Names of first, 24

Original thirteen, 23

Sewell, Capt. Samuel, 29

— ; Extract from diary of, 30

Skinner, Paraclete, 26

Stages, Lines of, established between

Woodstock and New London and

New Haven, 50
Stiles, Rev. Abel S., 39
Stoughton, Wm., 20

Throop, Rev. Amos, 36
Trees planted by wife of General
McClellan, 50

Wabbaquasset, 12
Wabquissit, j6
Walker, Aniasa, 57

Gen. Francis A., 57

War of 1812, Woodstock men in, 51
West Parish of Woodstock, incor-
porated 1743, 38

called New Roxbury, 38

Williams, Jared W., 57

Rev. Stephen, 38, 57

Samuel, Sr. , 57

Women of Woodstock, 57

Woodstock Hill, 13

Worcester County formed, 1731, 35

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